Java Sea Surface Temperature Variability during ENSO 1997 – 1998 and 2014 – 2015

Sea surface temperature variability: patterns and mechanisms.

Patterns of sea surface temperature (SST) variability on interannual and longer timescales result from a combination of atmospheric and oceanic processes. These SST anomaly patterns may be due to intrinsic modes of atmospheric circulation variability that imprint themselves upon the SST field mainly via surface energy fluxes. Examples include SST fluctuations in the Southern Ocean associated wi...

Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies: A Possible Trigger for ENSO

Decadal sea surface temperature variability in the subtropical South Pacific from 1726 to 1997 A.D.

We present a 271-year record of Sr/Ca variability in a coral from Rarotonga in the South Pacific gyre. Calibration with monthly sea surface temperature (SST) from satellite and ship measurements made in a grid measuring 1 degrees by 1 degrees over the period from 1981 to 1997 indicates that this Sr/Ca record is an excellent proxy for SST. Comparison with SST from ship measurements made since 19...

Remote Sea Surface Temperature Variations during ENSO: Evidence for a Tropical Atmospheric Bridge

In an El Niño event, positive SST anomalies usually appear in remote ocean basins such as the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the tropical North Atlantic approximately 3 to 6 months after SST anomalies peak in the tropical Pacific. Ship data from 1952 to 1992 and satellite data from the 1980s both demonstrate that changes in atmospheric circulation accompanying El Niño induce changes in ...

Pacific sea surface temperature and the winter of 2014

It is shown from historical data and from modeling experiments that a proximate cause of the cold winter in North America in 2013–2014 was the pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) in the Pacific Ocean. Each of the three dominant modes of SST variability in the Pacific is connected to the tropics and has a strong expression in extratropical SST and weather patterns. Beginning in the middle o...